Fever Dreams
by Nyte Kat
Summary: Jake is having weird visions... or is it all a dream? rated pg for i think one swear word. If I get good reviews, I might make this a series.


Jake walked out of the tiny diner. He didn't normally go out for coffee, but something seemed to push him there. The wind was light but chilly and seemed to make the slight cold the winter had given him feel worse. He was about to get into the rusty Mercury Sable when he saw a woman standing near the crosswalk. She wasn't overly attractive and wasn't sure what had drawn him to look at her. Then, like lightening, in the back of his head he saw her step out of the street and a truck run a red light. She didn't have time to scream before she was flattened beneath the heavy tires. Like having his head pulled out of ice cold water, reality hit him. There she was, about to step into the street. There was the huge truck with no sign of slowing down as the light turned red. Jake made a decision that would change his life forever.  
  
"HEY! WAIT" Jake dived for the woman, pulling her back out of the road as the black truck sped on through the red light, right through the spot the woman had been standing. The two fell back onto the sidewalk. The woman spun her head around in shock to the kat who had saved her life. Her eyes were wide with fright and the most startling black eyes Jake had ever seen, so black he seemed unable to pull his own eyes away from hers, but he managed somehow. She wasn't a supermodel. Her face was pale with tiny light brown flecks on her cheeks. Her hair was thin, not quite shoulder length, and looked as if it had been dyed red once because the tips of her hair was a lighter shade than the rest. She wasn't skinny. Although, looked as if she tried to dress to cover up any amount of body fat that would give people reason to stare at her, wearing baggy black jeans and a black t-shirt with the words "My Imaginary Friend Says You Have Issues" in thick bold white letters across the chest. Her neck sported a steel chain with spikes along the front. She was, in Jakes opinion, the most magnificent creature he had ever met. She was also sitting on the cold cement, eyes wide glancing at Jake and then the road breathing at a rate that would cause her to pace out if she didn't calm down.  
  
"Miss??" Jake shook her gently. "Miss are you okay?"  
  
"I... I," She stuttered and then looked to her savior. "YOU! You saved my life!" She looked at the road before her. "I could have been CRUSHED!"  
  
Again, she returned her gaze to Jake, but her tone softer this time. "Thank you."   
  
Jake smiled. "Can I buy you something to eat or drink? You look like you could use a drink or something after that. And then, maybe, I could drive you home?"  
  
She smiled and took his hand as he helped her to her feet. "What's your name?" She asked quietly, holding out her hand. "Mine's Piper."  
  
"Jake. Jake Clawson." He took her hand. It was small and cold. Piper. What a beautiful name. And yet somehow it seemed to fit. He led her back into the diner, ordered two more coffees, heavy on the cream and sugar and a couple of powdered donuts for each of them.   
  
She took a sip of the now light brown colored syrup that once was a rich black coffee and looked up at Jake. "So... do you have a girlfriend?" She asked innocently, as if she wasn't really interested, just looking for a conversation starter.  
  
"No." Jake said staring at his donut, afraid he'd be unable to hear a word she said if he looked into those eyes once more. They were powerful.  
  
"How did you know that truck was going to hit me? It came out of nowhere." She asked sternly, leaning back in the booth.  
  
"I... I saw it." Jake took a sip of the coffee which had taken the same coloration as hers. "I saw it..." His tone got lower so that no one would hear him and think he was crazy. "I saw it in my head. It hit you, and then I opened my eyes and there you were, about to step into the street. I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing. But then I saw the truck coming and knew I had to do something." She pondered his words. Jake was sure her silence meant she thought he was a total wacko. "Why?" Came Piper's reply.  
  
"Why not?" Jake set down the warm cup and looked into Piper's eyes. "I had two options really. Let you go into that road, letting myself believe I was seeing things and you get turned to mush. Or, I could have pulled you back, and whether the truck was coming or not you would be ok and my conscience would be clear." His voice was somewhat monotone. "So, what are you then? Some kind of super hero that spends your day running around saving people to feel good about yourself?" Piper retorted in somewhat of a sarcastic tone. Jake stopped his hand halfway to his mouth and put the donut back on his plate. "I would think you'd be more grateful than this that someone saved your life." She set down her cup and looked into his hard light brown eyes. "How are you so sure that your mind didn't create that truck? And what makes you so sure that even if you didn't cause that to happen that I wanted to be rescued?" Piper wiped the coffee off her mouth with a napkin and threw it onto the table. Jake sighed. He paid the waitress and left a small tip. "Can I still drive you home?"   
  
Jake pulled into the salvage yard. Thank God it was Sunday and they were closed. Chance would have given him hell for being away from the shop so long. He pushed open the heavy steel door to the office of the shop and closed it behind him before making his way up the wooden steps that led to their home above the shop. There he found Chance sitting at the kitchen table, reading the news paper.   
  
Chance put down the section he was reading and cleared his throat as Jake started to pass through the kitchen door. Jake spun around slowly, as if Chance were his father and he had just been caught sneaking around.  
  
"You were out a little longer than usual, run into anyone we knew??" Chance always had an abundance of curiosity. Jake smiled, "Nope." He turned back towards the small table and sat down across from Chance. "But I did meet this she-kat, saved her life, took her for coffee and drove her home." Jake lifted his head high with pride. Chance snuffed. "A girl? But Jake Clawson doesn't have time for girls." Chance grinned teasingly as he picked up the paper again. Jake was content to leave at that but Chance had to pry further. "So how did you save her life?" Jake thought it best to leave the whole 'I saw the future' thing out of this. "A truck ran a red light as she was about to cross the street. I saw it before she did and pulled her back onto the sidewalk." Chance put down the paper and narrowed his eyes. "You would have had to been standing awfully close to her to save her that fast. What were you doing that close to the crosswalk when you drove there?" Jake's jaw hung loose for a moment. He couldn't tell Chance this. "I, well I had dropped my keys on the way to my car, which was parked facing the street and I looked up and there she was and I saw the truck coming and I don't know I'm a fast kat." He sniffled as the warmth of home brought back that stuffy feeling in his head. In all honesty, his head felt increasingly heavy since that flash in the parking lot. "Look as much as I know you'd love to hear me talk for an hour about a girl I probably don't have a chance with, but this cold is kicking my ass and I'm feeling pretty lousy. If you don't have anything planned I think I'm going to take a nap." Chance nodded and then before Jake was out of earshot, "Maybe later we can go shoot a couple games of pool down at the bowling alley, seeing as the bar is closed on Sunday." Jake shrugged, "Maybe."  
  
Jake tossed in his sleep. Bright flashes of Dark Kat and his creeplings. He was ordering them to carry something. It was heavy, as if he was one of those tiny creatures carrying it on his back. Cold metal, but fragile. He had to be careful. Then he heard Dark Kat say something about a beam that would shatter anything in its line of fire, that its only weakness was water. Water would short it out. "By the time the SWAT Kats figure out how to stop it, Megakat City will be mine!!!" He laughed loudly, and then that icy feeling again, like hands, jerked him up out of his sleep. His head felt even heavier but the thought of Dark Kat causing all that destruction nagged at his brain. He needed to figure out a way to fire water at this new monster. He couldn't take chances on this being just a dream. The clock read 3:00pm. He had been asleep for only a couple of hours. In a drawer beside his bed there was a sketch book, the one he drew sudden ideas for weapons in. He started to draw then crumple it up and try again. Nothing he drew would work, he wouldn't even have time to build it. Then the alarm. He rushed down to the hanger, meeting T-Bone there with a speed that surprised his burly partner. "I thought you were sleeping." He said as Razor jumped into the jet, fastening himself in. "Let me guess, Miss Briggs called, Dark Kat is using this mega-beam on the city and nothing the Enforcers do can stop it?" T-Bone looked as if his mind had just been read. A look of pale shock spread across his face. "How did you know?" Razor looked somber. "I will explain later. But first we need to rescue the city... again. I know how to stop it."  
  
They flew high over Megakat city. When Razor said, "There! Bring us around behind that water tower. If I hit it at the right angle, the water will wash over it and short it out." T-Bone turned the jet harshly, causing a slight moan from his partner. He never did like those sharp turns. "Alright, sure shot. Take him out." Razor lined up a splicer missile with the bottom of the water tower and launched. "Deploying splicer missile." The water tower fell apart and a rush of thousands of gallons of water washed down the streets of the city and sent that metal ball up in sparks.   
  
As Chance changed back into his regular clothes he looked at his partner, who was sitting on the bench, helmet and mask off, but rubbing his head with his hand. "So... how did you know?"   
  
Jake bit his lip. He quickly realized that these 'visions' left him with a mega headache. "I saw him making it. Telling his creeplings what its weakness was." Jake looked up at Chance. "I... that's how I saved Piper, the girl I met. I was about to unlock my car and I saw this bright flash, like it was in my head, her stepping out into the road and the truck barreling towards her. I should have told you, but I thought I was crazy. How could I pretend not to know what was going to happen this time?" Jake looked as if he thought himself crazy. Chance sat down beside him. He looked him over. "Are you okay?" Jake shook his head. "The first time, with Piper, I felt fine, but later my head started to ache. Then with Dark Kat, I feel like that time we got in that stupid fight with Burt and Murray, and Burt hit me over the head with a metal beam." Jake shook his head and got up slowly, changing the rest of the way out of his flight suit and into those jeans and the sweat shirt he was wearing earlier. "Chance, if you want to go out tonight, that's fine but I really don't feel like going out anywhere. I mean... what if I start seeing things again? People will think I'm nuts!" Chance sighed. "Take some aspirin. And come with me anyway. If you start feeling weird or seeing things we can leave. I just think it would do us good to go do something instead of sitting here gathering dust." Jake nodded.  
  
Chance wondered why he ever wanted to challenge Jake to a game of pool. After all, Jake was a genius and pool was a mathematical game. He watched Jake focus intently on the 9 ball. He pulled back the cue and was about to strike the cue ball when "JAKE?" He hit the cue ball wrong and scratched. Looking up he, was once again pulled into those eyes. Piper.  
  
"Piper?" Jake stood up. She was still wearing the spikes but her clothes were replaced with black pants, a white shirt and an apron. She obviously worked in the snack shop at the bowling alley. "Come here often?" It was a stupid thing to say and he could hear Chance snicker behind him. She smiled. "I work here, normally at the bar, but its Sunday." She looked at him. He had put on some nicer clothes to go out... a pair of baggy newer looking blue jeans, and a black long sleeved shirt. "What about you? I don't normally see you around here." She moved closer and spoke more quietly. "Or, did you have a vision that I would be here?" Jake swallowed. "Uh... well no. I don't normally come here. Um..." He turned to Chance who was trying not to laugh at Jake's nervousness. "This is my buddy Chance. Chance... this is Piper, the girl I told you about." Chance shook her hand. He smiled at her, sizing her up. She was definitely Jake's kind of girl... the kind that would hopefully bring Jake out of his shy little shell. Chance looked over at Jake. "Say, we were just about to start a new game... how about triple threat?" She smiled. "Sure I was just finishing up here anyway. Let me go change." Jake watched her go and turned to Chance with a nervous look on his face. Chance laughed. "Don't tell me you can take on the cities most notorious villains but can't talk to a girl?" Jake laughed lightly and racked a new game. Just as he finished, she made her way over to them. Her hair was messy and she had on a little too much eyeliner, wearing the same clothes he had rescued her in. "So.. in this game you have to try to knock in..." She cut him off. "I do know how to play this game." She smiled. "Oh." Came Chance's reply. He broke. By the end of the game, Jake had relaxed, although he did lose. Apparently being nervous doesn't help his game. Chance basked in his glory. Then Piper, sighed. "It's getting late, I better go." Jake was about to say goodbye when Chance elbowed him and muttered something about her number to him. He blushed "um... so you think maybe..." he lowered his tone so that Chance wouldn't hear him stutter. "Maybe I could um, well you know... call you some..." Before he finished she handed him a piece of paper that had her phone number on it. He took a deep breath. A feeling of joy mixed with light headedness over came him and he turned to find Chance with an eyebrow raised. He mocked his stuttering. Jake had forgotten the wonderful sense of hearing his best friend had. His face turned a deep crimson.  
  
Chance drove way too fast down one of his "short cuts" on the way home. Jake clutched the door and leaned back in his seat. Slowly his headache grew worse and he forgot about the bumpy ride. Then a flash. A motorcycle, on a back road, in the wrong lane. They were going too fast. Jake gasped for air as reality hit him. "CHANCE!!!" Chance swerved at Jake's scream. Then Chance saw coming towards them a single light. "Get out of the road." Jake said nervously. "What?" "CHANCE PLEASE!" Chance swerved the car off the road, narrowly missing the motorcycle. Chance got out and screamed at the idiot driving on the wrong side of the road. "THIS AIN'T BLOODY ENGLAND YOU IDIOT!" Jake felt like his head was caving in, his stomach turned. He pushed open the car door, undoing his seat belt and falling to his knees.   
  
Chance was pulled out of his rage by the sound of Jake retching loudly. He spun on his heel and ran to Jake, skidding to a stop as the skinner Kat puked all over the ground beside the car. "Kats alive! Jake! Jeez, I'm sorry, I'll go slower next time!" Chance inched closer, a grimace on his face and a hope that Jake wouldn't aim for his feet. Jake waved Chance back. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and got back in the car, leaning his head back against the seat. Chance ran to the driver's side and hopped in. "You gonna be ok buddy?" Jake sniffed. His head was spinning. Some of the ache was gone now. He sneezed and then moaned at the sharp pain it sent to his head. "Chance, take me home." Jake said quietly. Even the smallest noise seemed to send shots of pain to his head. Chance nervously put on his seat belt and started the car, driving much slower this time.  
  
Chance pulled into the junkyard and stopped. He ran around to the passenger door and opened it. Jake had passed out after a huge bump in the road Chance hadn't been expecting. He gently pulled his friend from the car and closed the door with his foot. He had to find some one that could help Jake.  
  
He laid Jake down in the bed and patted his cheek. "Come on buddy wake up." Out of fear, Chance reared his hand back and slapped Jake. His caramel colored eyes shot open. And then closed again in a wince of pain. Jake curled up on his side, grabbing his head, moaning through gritted teeth. Chance put his hand down with a grimace, feeling somewhat guilty.   
  
Jake dug his claws into his head, pulling his hair, whimpering for the pain to stop. 'Please.' He thought. 'What have I done to deserve this!' He screamed inside his own mind. He felt Chance touch his face. His hands were warm and comforting, but he couldn't will himself to speak. His voice wouldn't work. And he whimpered inwardly as his friend's hands left. His stomach churned. It churned harder than it had on the back road. He felt himself starting to black out and then jerked back to reality has he began to vomit. He couldn't see. It all was black, but he could feel Chance's hand again. This time, on his back, rubbing it as he threw up. He was whispering something, but there was a roar in his ears that covered even the sound of his own retching. It was as if his heart had cease to beat, instead, the thumping was stretched into one long dizzying scream. Then the flashes of white hot light in the darkness ceased and all became dark. He felt himself falling and then being lifted and then slowly being lowered. Something cold and wet touched his face. He opened his eyes slowly. Chance was leaning over him, wiping his face with a wet cloth. Jake groaned inwardly. His eyes opening seemed to cause Chance to smile. "Jeez, Jake." He said quietly. "You had me worried." He couldn't seem to speak. His throat felt raw. He raised his hand and pointed to his throat, trying to tell Chance that he couldn't talk. "You've been pretty sick, man." Chance helped him into a sitting position. He realized he was in Chance's bed. Then he felt a note pad and a pen placed on his lap. Jake tried to talk but all that came out was a squeak. "Talking is probably not a good idea, buddy. If you can, write it out instead." Chance's tone was gentle, but in a relieved way.  
  
Jake wrote: How long have I been out? And why am I in your bed??   
  
Chance looked at the words and then with a confused look at Jake, he spoke. "Jake, you've been in and out of consciousness for nearly 3 days. What's the last thing you remember?"  
  
Jake looked up at Chance with a confused look then wrote: That's not possible. What about Piper and Dark Kat and the guy driving on the wrong side of the road? Chance looked at Jake with a frown. "You've really been out of it. You passed out Friday night. Do you remember?" Jake shook his head slowly. "Well," Chance began. "We were going to the bar. And After half a game of pool, you said the noise was giving you a head ache, that you wanted to go home. As soon as we got outside, he passed out right in the parking lot. Jake it must have been not even 20 degrees outside, but you were burning up. I brought you home. You've been sleeping most of the time. But last night, you got really sick to your stomach. You didn't have the strength to get up. When I got to you, you were curled up on your side, puking your brains out." Chance stopped when he saw Jake scribble something on the pad. What about Piper??? Chance looked at him funny. "Piper?" He looked at Jake funny. "I don't know any Piper. It must have been the fever. You were mumbling some strange things. Look, it's late. Get some sleep and we will see how you're feeling in the morning."  
  
Chance pulled the blanket up to Jake's chin and turned out the light.   
  
The next morning Chance had poured himself a cup of coffee when Jake half staggered into the kitchen and sat down at the table. "How you feeling?" Jake rested his head in his hand. "Shitty, and starving." Chance laughed lightly. "Well there's some soup on the stove. Don't eat too fast though. Don't want you getting sick again. Haven't seen you throw up like that since we had that contest at the carnival." Jake turned slightly pale at the thought of the gravitron spinning upside down and on its sides. He swallowed and settled for a small bowl of soup.   
  
*BUZZ* Chance looked up. "There's a customer." He opened the door and went down the steps. Jake followed out of curiosity. There was a she kat at the counter. Her hair was shoulder length, with red dyed tips. He couldn't hear what she said to Chance but then Chance spoke. "Well Piper, lets go have a look at it and see how long it will take to fix it." She looked up at Jake, winked and followed Chance out the door. 


End file.
